


can't take my eyes off of you

by orphan_account



Series: more than true [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Fantasy AU, Gratuitous romantic cliches, I haven't forgotten about vampiremako AU, I promise, M/M, Makoto is crazy beautiful and Haruka pines, Poor Haru is a socially awkward water spirit, Water Spirit Haruka, but he tries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-28 19:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5103080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, there was a water spirit named Haruka, and he loved a beautiful human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	can't take my eyes off of you

**Author's Note:**

> I've read a lot of stories where Human!Makoto pines over Nonhuman!Haruka like "he's so beautiful, he's otherworldly, how could he want to be with someone like me, etc etc..." and while there's nothing wrong with those, I wanted to see supernatural Haruka being ridiculously smitten with Makoto too. (Because, let's be real, everyone's ridiculously smitten with Makoto and supernatural creatures are no exception.)

Haruka looks at him and feels like a child.

He doesn't know how old he is - there is no time in the water; the rain that caresses him never ages, never dies, he finds it again in the deepest secret places of the river where it has fallen. He has never felt especially young, nor has he ever felt especially old. He looks at Makoto and feels _young,_ tender, breakable. It doesn't bother him, because Makoto is tenderness the way Haruka is water. Makoto would break him sweetly, carefully, and Haruka would not mind being broken in his arms. 

The first time he sees Makoto, he sees him in silhouette, walking home through the forest, the night only serving to accentuate the grace of the way he moves. He is frightened of the dark, humming to keep the unknown at bay, and it makes Haruka ache, both from wanting to assure him he is safe and from the realization that no joy he's ever seen has been as alluring as this person's uneasiness.

He learns Makoto's name days after this happens. He's spent those days close to the water's edge, surfacing constantly, the ache to protect that person transformed into yearning, as if he's being withheld from the water. Then one day he's stunned as he begins to surface and sees the outline of  _those_ shoulders and  _those_ hands reaching down into the water. He forgets to move for a moment and sinks, then propels himself upward, breaking the surface with a breath of relief, of satisfied longing. He doesn't know what will happen once he reaches this person, _at last,_ but he knows that he needs to reach him.

The person has intensely green eyes and a sweet voice that half curses, half gasps in shock as he falls back onto the riverbank. Haruka follows him down, the feeling of dirt and cracked leaves rough and alien on his palms.

"Who are you?" The sweet voice asks him. Haruka does not answer because he does not know. He has never had to consider it.

"What do you want?" This, Haruka can tell him. 

"I want to know you." A moment of silence, a sound caught between a nervous laugh and a cough.

"I. Ah. Why?" 

"Because I want to." 

"Who are you?" He asks again. Haruka frowns. The slight shift loosens a droplet of water on his face; it falls onto the person's hair.

"I don't know what to tell you." 

"What can I _call_ you?" 

"Haruka. If you want to call me something." 

"Can I get up? Er, Haruka." Haruka tilts his head at him. 

"You look stronger than me. Why are you asking?" 

"I - because. You might have." He turns his face away, looking sideways at Haruka. "Supernatural strength, or. You know. Magic. Stuff." 

Haruka frowns again and climbs half-into the river.  

"You can get up. You're strange." 

" _I'm_ strange?"

"I think you're strange," Haruka elaborates. 

"Oh. Uh, sorry?" The person lifts himself up on his forearms and scoots backwards a little, folding his legs underneath him. He looks worried.

"I don't mind." Haruka has a sudden thought and leans towards him, eyes shining.

"What can I call _you?_ " 

"Ah, my name's Tachibana Makoto." 

"That's long. I'll call you Makoto." 

"O-okay." 

Haruka lifts himself out of the water again, draping his forearms over Makoto's calves.  

"Why are you scared?"  

Makoto shifts nervously, but doesn't move out from under Haruka's arms. 

"You just suddenly came out of the water, and I... people say there's something down there, something unknown. I thought you might... want to drown me." 

Haruka frowns at him for what feels like the hundredth time.

"I like your voice. It's beautiful. I couldn't hear it if I did that." 

"T-thank you, I guess. Have you been... watching me or something?" 

"I saw you in the woods once. I wanted to see you again." 

"Why did you want to see me again?" 

Haruka scowls. It's a really, really simple concept, but Makoto can't seem to accept it. 

"You're beautiful. And you were scared then, too - I wanted to protect you. I didn't want you to be scared." He leans close to Makoto's face. Maybe he'll understand Haruka that way. "So please don't be."

Makoto swallows nervously, but he looks Haruka in the eye this time.

"Don't be what?" 

"Don't be scared of me." 

"I-" There's a breath, a pause. Hope catches and burns in Haruka's chest. "I don't think I am. Scared of you, that is." 

Haruka smiles, more in his eyes than his mouth, but there.

"Good. If you're not scared, can you tell me about you?" 

"Tell you what about me?" 

"What you asked me before. Tell me who you are." 

"You haven't even told me who _you_ are!" 

"I... don't know, exactly." 

"That's sad," Makoto says. Haruka looks at him curiously. 

"Why is it sad?" 

"Everyone should know who they are." 

"How do you know that?" 

"Well, it's just - " Makoto shifts closer for the first time, and something thrilled and childlike flutters in Haruka. "The things that make you Haruka, you know? The things that define you."

"I think you're beautiful." Makoto's ears turn pink at that. Haruka pokes one of them curiously until his hand is batted away.

"You've - you've said that, yeah. Is there anything else?" 

"I..." Haruka looks away for a moment, thinking hard. "I love mackerel." Makoto laughs then, not a nervous laugh but a real laugh, and Haruka isn't sure what he said that was so funny, but he feels dizzy and smitten with the sound of Makoto's laugh.

"Do that  _again,_ " he says.

"Do what again?" Makoto says, still smiling at Haruka, amused.

"Laugh. It was amazing." 

"I - I can't just laugh on command," Makoto says, but he does it again anyway, and Haruka wants to curl up in the sound and live there forever.  

He does the closest thing to that that he can think of, and presses his mouth against Makoto's, chasing the laugh and breathing it in.  

"Haru!" He doesn't pull away, but he makes a shocked noise against Haruka's lips. Haruka pulls back first and stares at him. 

"You called me Haru." 

"O-oh, did I? Sorry, it just kind of slipped-" 

"It's fine. I like it. Can that... be part of who I am now, like you were talking about?"

Makoto laughs like he doesn't believe what he's hearing. "Sure, Haru. It can be." 

"Can you tell me about you now?" 

Makoto rubs the back of his neck and looks at Haru oddly. "I - I guess. There's not a whole lot to tell. I live with my parents, I have twin siblings and I love them a lot. I'm, well -" 

Haru frowns. "You're what?" 

"I'm a bit afraid of the water. Aah, why am I telling some water person I just met about that?"

"I said I'm not going to drown you." 

"Right, right. Sorry."                    

"Why are you afraid of water?" 

"Ah, someone I knew when I was a kid died at sea. I guess I was so young it made more of an impression on me than it should have."

Haru is sort of taken aback - he's never really left this river, never been aware that the water did things like that. 

"I'll talk to the water," he says. 

"I'm sorry?" 

"I'll talk to it. It shouldn't make people afraid of it." 

"Oh. Well, thank you, I guess." 

"I want you to be safe," Haru says. "That was what I thought when I first saw you." 

Makoto smiles at him. It spreads down Haru's spine like sunlight warming the water. 

"I think I am," he says. 

 


End file.
